


Retry

by inkreservoir



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Crushes, Fluff, Friendship, Humor, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 07:17:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11892747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkreservoir/pseuds/inkreservoir
Summary: When Mondo goes into the school store to see if there's anything useful in the vending machine, he's surprised to find Makoto crouching on his knees, putting coins into a prize dispenser.Rated for swearing.





	Retry

When Mondo pushes open the door to the cramped school store at Hope’s Peak Academy, his initial goal is the tiny vending machine on the left, which he already decided is utterly useless a few weeks back when he first saw it. It wasn’t until about ten minutes ago that it occurred to him he passed his judgment before actually looking inside the machine, and with that thought and a surge of annoyance at the possibility of being wrong, he decided to return to confirm his gut instinct. He’s still contemplating what he'll do if there actually _does_ turn out to be anything of note inside, so far everything boiling down to _punch the bear for putting me in this stupid situation_ and knowing full well that that’s a bad idea, when a low quality pinging noise like an arcade machine compels him to lower his gaze below his regular line of vision.   
  
Makoto kneels-- or sort of kneels, one knee on the floor and the other being used to hold himself up to about half his usual height, as if he was standing for so long that he had to lower himself to relieve the tiredness-- in front of one of those prize machines you might see by the exit of a grocery store or in a games room, with a slot for coins and a knob that turns to make a capsule fall out. Makoto’s hand is poised to twist it when he shifts around, eyes wide, and raises his head to look at Mondo’s face.   
  
A beat passes in silence. Mondo had expected the store to be empty, barely remembered the prize machine was even here when he entered, let alone potentially filled with anything teenagers their age might have an interest in. Makoto blinks quickly up at him, as if he’d just been caught shoving chocolate into his pockets at the checkout line.   
  
"Uhm..." he finally mumbles, breaking the silence, and his voice snaps Mondo out of his daze.   
  
"What're you... doing?" he asks, eyes moving back and forth between Makoto on the floor and the machine, flashing obnoxiously and split black and white down the middle.  "Isn't that a kids' toy?"   
  
"Oh! Umm," Makoto stammers, and Mondo's eyebrows furrow when a blush creeps across the other's face. He sits frozen, lips moving hesitantly, as if sounding out syllables of words he doesn’t understand. "W-well, I was just... um..."   
  
"Spit it out already," Mondo commands, fingers curling into a fist at the other’s slowness. "Is there anything good in that thing?" He glares at the machine doubtfully. It looks to be made of plastic, like the coloured light bulbs were glued on, practically begging to be torn apart, especially with the image of that bear’s face grinning at him below the container.   
  
"Yeah, actually..." Makoto slowly admits, studying Mondo’s face carefully. "Remember when I gave you that seat cover? I got it from, um. Here."   
  
Mondo’s eyebrows shoot up, and he shuffles closer to where Makoto is crouched in the tight space. "Whoa, really?"

Makoto, seeming to regain his composure a little, straightens to his full height, which isn’t that tall. Mondo puts a hand on the casing and closes one eye, trying to see what’s inside. The seat cover Makoto’d given him was supposed to be chinchilla, though Mondo wouldn’t know if the fur were actually authentic or not. He’d wondered where Makoto’d gotten it, especially once Makoto told him that he doesn’t even have a motorcycle and so no need for anything fancy, but didn’t think into it too much back then. Still, though, products of that quality aren’t exactly normal for a prize machine nor desirable to the kids Mondo would’ve assumed to be the target audience.

He squints. The machine is full of capsules with lids in many different colours, but they white bottom halves are all opaque, so it’s impossible to see what the prizes actually are. There doesn’t seem to be a list anywhere, either. He looks at Makoto. "I can't see shit."

"Yeah," Makoto rocks forward and back on his feet. "You kinda have to try it and see what you get."  
  
Of course. "Dunno why I thought anything in this fucking school might be convenient," Mondo grumbles.

Makoto laughs quietly. "That would be, uh... uncharacteristic, huh?"  
  
Mondo ignores the other's obvious nervousness. "So what d'you like... put in it?" Up until now, money was useless at this school, and any they might’ve brought with them had been taken away on the first day.   
  
"Oh," Makoto says, then pinches a coin out of the knob, still unturned, to show Mondo. It's silver, with the image of the bear from hell engraved into it. "Well, I found some of these around the school... they work when you put them into the machine."   
  
"Hey, I've seen those before," Mondo tells him, reaching into a pocket of his jacket to fish out some of the same coins. He’d forgotten about them entirely prior to now. "Found 'em in my room but didn't know what they were for." They were stashed in strange places, one in the trash and another lying flat on a giant bolt used to seal the windows.   
  
Makoto nods, then puts his coin back into the machine and turns the knob a few times. The machine beeps an unnecessarily loud jingle, and then there's the sound of plastic colliding with metal. Makoto flips up the flap of the machine and holds the capsule in front of Mondo. "See?"   
  
Mondo narrows his eyes at the prize, which is smaller than his fist and probably about the same size as Makoto’s. "An' there's something good in there?” his lips tug to the side. “How's it fit?"   
  
Makoto shrugs, and pops open the lid of the capsule. He shakes it, and slowly a rectangular container slides out, seeming to increase in size as it emerges from its casing. "Blueberry perfume," he says knowingly, pursing his lips. Mondo supposes it doesn’t have to make sense how it fit, since fuck-all makes sense here either way.   
  
"Don't like it?" Mondo guesses in response to Makoto’s disappointed tone. "I don't either." A couple of the Crazy Diamond guys would save up to buy Blueberry Perfume in an effort to attract girls, but only one or two actually cared for the scent themselves.   
  
"Yeah..." Makoto mumbles, tossing it into his backpack. The light _thwack_ sound it makes once it’s landed suggests it isn’t the only capsule he’s thrown in there. The image of Makoto crouched on the floor appears in Mondo’s mind again.

"How long've you been here for, anyway?" he asks.  
  
Makoto's eyes widen again and he stiffens, like a pedestrian about to get crushed beneath giant tires, unable to move with the headlights glaring right into his eyes. "I, um..."   
  
Mondo's teeth grit and Makoto sighs.  “... A while.”   
  
His pant knees are grey with dust from the ground, so Mondo doesn’t doubt it. He scratches his neck. "What, got nothin' better to do?"   
  
"It's not that..." Makoto's face reddens again, eyes darting guiltily away from Mondo’s. "I'm... trying to win a specific prize."   
  
"But you don't even know what's in it,” Mondo points out. Though at this point it wouldn’t surprise him if Makoto has most of the available prizes memorized, or at the very least, stuffed in his backpack.   
  
"True, but I... I think I can guess what this person might like,” Makoto strains.

"Huh?" Mondo’s mouth opens in surprise. Makoto offers him a thin smile, the lines tense around his eyes. "You're looking for something to give to someone else?"   
  
"Uh, yeah..." Makoto exhales sharply. "I mean, um… no one usually comes in here so I didn't think anybody'd notice..." He trails off.   
  
Mondo feels his blood heat at the notion he's unwelcome but tries to convince himself that's not what Makoto meant by it.   
  
"I just wanted to check out the vending machine," he explains, partly to himself, having almost forgotten why he’d come here in the first place. "I'll leave you alone after that."   
  
"Ah! I didn't mean it that way! I mean," Makoto shakes his head. "You can stay if you want!"   
  
"Nah," Mondo reassures him. "I'm sure whoever you've been crouching on the ground for'll appreciate it."   
  
Makoto’s face is so phosphorescent it may explode, like a tomato squeezed to bursting point and spewing tomato guts all over the room.   
  
"Thanks," he mumbles.   
  
"Don't mention it," Mondo shrugs, and side-steps to peer inside the vending machine, turning his back to Makoto. Drinks... refrigerated, and probably newly restocked. Which is actually… not that bad, which means he was wrong.

Which makes him want to punch the machine.  
  
Mondo spins around on his heel. "Y'know," he growls at Makoto. Makoto recoils away at the sudden attention, which inspires Mondo to stand even taller. "When I was a kid, my brother would just bust those machines open and get me whatever fucking toy I want."   
  
"Oh," Makoto says meekly, his tone like a squeaky mouse. Mondo can feel the blood rushing to his face.   
  
"I can try it if you want," he offers, grinning down at Makoto and cracking his knuckles. "Bet I can break the damn thing in one swing, just tell me what you’re lookin’ for.”

"It's okay!" Makoto waves his hands desperately in front of Mondo, like a scarf before a bull. "We don't even know what might happen if we break school property, so we shouldn’t--”

"Fuck this school!" Mondo's fist slams into the wall.

The cement wall.

"Fuck!" he grabs his hand with his left, massaging it with his thumb. His teeth clench.

"It's fine, really," Makoto’s muffled voice insists over Mondo's pained hissing. "Besides, I don't think Kiyotaka'd appreciate us breaking the rules to get him a present..."  
  
"Kiyotaka?" Mondo repeats. He looks up over his throbbing hand, blinking to clear his vision he’d not quite realized had become bleary. "You're getting a present for Kiyotaka?"   
  
Makoto's hands fly to his lips. "I didn't mean to say that!" he exclaims, as if by covering his mouth he could shove the words back inside it. "Oh my god, I'm so embarrassed... please don't tell him!" he begs.   
  
Mondo is quiet.

All this time, pushing coins into the machine one by one, peering inside of every single capsule that falls out, throwing the ones that don’t make the cut into his bag... Makoto was looking for a gift for Kiyotaka. The perfect gift.  
  
Mondo tilts his head. Just like that, all of Makoto’s strange behaviour earlier starts to make sense.

"Yeah, I won't tell him,” Mondo promises. He gives Makoto a thumbs up. "You can count on me."  
  
Makoto's face brightens, and Mondo grins. He digs into his pocket for the few coins he'd scavenged searching through this place.   
  
"Here," he holds his closed fist out to Makoto, whose lips part, before he hesitantly extends his hand to accept the coins.   
  
"Are you sure?" Makoto asks, eyebrows raised. Mondo nods authoritatively, taking Makoto's hand in his own and dropping the coins into his palm.   
  
"Sure as hell," he confirms, pulling back with a smile. "Good luck."   
  
"Wow, thanks!" Makoto enthuses, his eyes glittering. It's cute, like a puppy thrown a treat after a successful trick.

Mondo raises his arm dismissively. “Yeah, yeah, don't mention it,” he says, turning for the door. "Win him something cool, kid."  
  
Makoto clutches the coins to his chest, bobbing up onto the balls of his feet. "You bet!" he agrees.   
  
Mondo can already hear the knob turning before he's fully left the store, and he’s glad for Kiyotaka’s sake that of everyone at this school, it’s he that Makoto ended up taking an interest in.

Even before Mondo and Kiyotaka were friends, Mondo got the impression that Kiyotaka wasn't exactly popular growing up. Someone like that would probably appreciate most kind gestures, yet Makoto still went to all this trouble to find Kiyotaka a thoughtful present, something he felt the other’d actually really like. And though Mondo himself and Makoto aren’t particularly close, Mondo believes what Makoto said about probably being able to guess what sort of gift would fit that criteria.

He allows himself a satisfied grunt. While there’s no way to know what might happen, at least for now, it’s good to know Kiyotaka has some caring friends at his side. If guaranteeing that is the only thing that Mondo can do for him, then from himself, he won't accept anything less.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based on a true story, i.e. my life as a player of Danganronpa, who spends all my time at the gacha machine trying to win presents for Ishimaru. I'm in love, guys.


End file.
